Global Continental Arc Flare-ups and Their Relation to Long-Term Greenhouse Conditions

Continents are long-term storage sites for sedimentary carbonates. Global flare-ups in continental arc volcanism, when arc magmas intersect and interact with stored carbonates, thus have the potential for elevating the global baseline of deep Earth carbon inputs into the atmosphere, leading to long-lived greenhouse conditions. Decarbonation residues, known as skarns, are ubiquitously associated with the eroded remnants of ancient batholiths, attesting to the potential link between continental arc magmatism and enhanced global CO2 inputs to the atmosphere.